Polyzoa XV
1885-1890
Frederick McCoy's 'Polyzoa XV' looks like a page straight out of a Victorian scientist's dream journal, filled with bizarre, alien-looking creatures. These aren't actually aliens, but detailed illustrations of bryozoans—tiny aquatic animals that often form colonies resembling moss or coral. Created in the late 1880s, this plate showcases the incredible diversity of these microscopic architects, with some looking like ribbed sacs and others like branching trees. McCoy, a prominent paleontologist, used these precise drawings to help fellow scientists identify species long before modern microscopy was widespread.
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